West Ham United allegedly stood firm by not caving into the wage demands of Napoli midfielder Piotr Zielinski.
That’s according to a report from Calciomercato who claim that the 28-year-old was demanding £100k-a-week to move to the London Stadium.
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West Ham boss David Moyes has been chasing Zielinski for a couple of weeks now and were actually prepared to pay £38 million to sign him (Tuttomercatoweb).
At the time, many though that the reason was because West Ham didn’t have Champions League football on offer at the London Stadium.
And now it’s clear what the real reason was…
Piotr Zielinski wage demands scupper West Ham move
Calciomercato claim that the 28-year-old was demanding a huge £100k-a-week package to join the Hammers in the summer transfer window.
We believe that Zielinski would have been a fine addition for West Ham. At the same time though, we back the club’s decision not to cave in to his extortionate wage demands.
He only earns £33k-a-week at Napoli after all (Salary Sport)!
The 28-year-old is undoubtedly a huge talent and has the kind of ability that would definitely have taken West Ham’s attacking play to another level.
Zielinski bagged eight goals and five assists in 42 games for Napoli last season and in the 2020/21 campaign, he racked up 10 goals and 13 assists in 47 games (Transfermarkt).
In 35 Serie A outings last season, the Poland international made 36.1 passes on average per game and recorded an impressive completion rate of 84.8%. He also made an average of 1.4 key passes per match (Who Scored).
Former Poland manager Paulo Sousa described the Napoli midfielder as ‘exceptional’ (The Guardian). Meanwhile, The Daily Star labelled him as ‘incredible’.
The fact that Piotr Zielinski would have made a big difference for West Ham cannot be argued.
The Poland international is a top-class player but at 28, he has certainly already reached his full potential.
We can’t be paying someone who’s 28 such a vast amount of money on a four or five-year deal. We believe that the Hammers owners were right to dig their heels in.
Read other West Ham news:
Report claims £17 million West Ham ace wants to leave, agreement for sale in place
29-year-old striker says West Ham have just submitted a bid for him